DIY Honeybee Feeder Bags & June Gap

It's the June gap now. This means that in most parts of England there will be a natural break/ shortage of nectar producing flowers. It's at this time of year that your bee population will have increased considerably during the last nectar flow. Now there are many mouths to feed and short supply of food to go around. If the weather has a turn for the worst then you could find your bees are in great trouble and will need a feed. As in previous pages, please never feed your bees if you have honey supers in place. Always remember to remove all supers, only feed the brood box and only if necessary.

So have a look at your bees and if they have little stores then it is important to feed them to ensure they do not starve to death. Nucs or Nuclei, a small starter colony, will need an ongoing supply of feeding to help simulate the queen to lay and encourage your bees to draw out the wax cells vital as receptacles for eggs, pollen and honey stores. Without a helping hand the colony will develop very slowly if at all during a nectar drought.

I have enclosed a few pictures of simple DIY feeding bags that you can make up well in advance and store away in a bucket for times like this. Pour your cane sugar syrup solution into a sandwich bag, twist the end and tie a knot. Now take a piece of flat narrow wood and using frame nails, nail several through the end of the wood so the nail ends extend out the other side. This will be used to puncture pin holes in the bag. Only hit one side of the bag. With the holes on the top, place the bag on the top of the brood frames. You may need an Eke ( a shallow box surround- approx 1/3 the depth of a super box) to allow enough of a gap between the frames your bag and the coverboard. You can of course just leave off the coverboard and place your roof on.

It's a quick and easy method. Your bees will crawl up on top of the bag and feed from it. The pin holes are tiny and the syrup will not leak out as long as the holes are on the top side of the bag. Bees will suck every drop from the bag until it is bone dry.

We use this method for developing nucs and swarms. If you catch a swarm add a bee fed bag as you hive the swarm. This ensures they will take to your travel box/skep. Also during their swarming activity they use up a lot of their food stores and will be VERY grateful for the helping hand!

photo copyright 2010 ©-The Hive Honey Shop

Colony of honey bees have moved into the wall cavity

I live in Sheffield and a colony of honey bees have moved into the wall cavity by the bedroom window. I would like to move them without killing them.Any ideas please?

I enjoyed Jack Watkins' article in the Telegraph and would to call into your shop in Clapha

m sometime soon.Kind regards

Chris

Reply- from The Hive Honey Shop

Hi Chris

The bees can be removed without harm, but in a case like this it will require a bit of building construction work. The best way is to get a local beekeeper and a builder together. The builder will need to remove a part of the inner wall to expose the bees nest. The beekeeper will be able to get at the bees and remove them and clean out the honey and beeswax. The bees can then be taken away without any harm to them. We do this kind of removal all the time. If you were near us we could have helped you this time. All bees can be removed without any harm to them as long as you are committed to doing the ground work.

Hope that helps.

Regards

John

Subject: RE: Bees in a wall

Date: 6 June 2010 23:13:21 BST

Thanks John
I will find a local bee keeper to have a look at the nest and go on from there.
Regards

photo copyright 2010 ©-The Hive Honey Shop

Beekeeping Course Ends, Next one in July!

What a great weekend! The weather was just glorious, hot sunny & dry-just perfect for The Hive Honey Shops open air beekeeping weekend course. Sat was off to a great start with a lovely student group of beekeeping enthusiasts. The food was catered by the Hives own chef -Ute throughout the day.

Sunday was even better with the surprise appearance of a prime swarm! The students were introduced to the technique of hiving a swarm, finding the marked queen and putting it all to right. It was a really welcomed bonus to the days learning. All the students were able to open a hive, work it, and examine it in detail under the supervision of James, the head beekeeper.

Ute provided an open air BBQ consisting of grilled salmon, honey glazed chicken, hamburgers, veggie burgers, grilled vegetables and iced cold drinks, which we really needed after getting out of our bee suits!

The final fun came as we handed out The Hive Honey Shop's Certificated of Beekeeping with a glass of bubbling Prosecco to toast the successful completion to the beekeeping weekend.

Everyone had a wonderful time and many have contacted The Hive in preparation to setting up their first beehive next month.

Our next and final beekeeping course for 2010 will be Sat & Sun, July 17th & 18th. Only 8 places left -so Book Now!

photo copyright 2010 ©-The Hive Honey Shop

Time to close your hives down for the winter

Well the weather is just now turning a little colder, a reminder that winter will be here soon. The clocks have now been set back for daylight savings time. So now it's time to begin closing down your hives in preparation for the long winter months ahead.

If you have feeders on, now is the time to remove them. Pour any unused sugar syrup into a container and tighten the lid. This can be used for a feed in the spring. You removed all your honey supers during the feeding period, so if you held back a super to feed to your bees for winter than now is the time to put it back on. You will have completed your Varroa treatment by now and with little or no brood your bees should be fairly Varroa clean.

Ventilation is important at this time of year. Condensation within a hive is dangerous to bee heath so take steps to avoid this. Make sure your hive is tilted slightly, the front lower than the back. This way if any water collects within your hive it will run down the inner walls towards the front of the hive and drip out through the entrance. Bees cluster to keep warm, breathing and consuming nectar during the winter. So water vapour is produced within the air. We need to make sure this vapour can escape. A little trick is to place stick matches on the upper four corners of the brood box. Place your crownboard on top of the match sticks. These leaves a tiny gap all around the top area just big enough to allow a little air flow circulation. Air enters via the entrance and up and out through your provided gap space. It's too small to allow wasps or mice into the hive. Which brings me to mice!

Make sure you have your mouse guards in place. Remove the entrance block and put the guard over the entrance. See our earlier article explaining this.

If you have woodpeckers or badgers in your area then cover your hive with chicken wire. You can secure it under the legs of your hive stand or tie it in place. Woodpeckers will not only damage the hive by putting large holes through the sides of the hive, but of course will slowly eat their way through your bees, picking them off one by one. Badgers will just knock your hive over like a tank and eat the lot.

Winds pick up at this time of year so securing your hive roof is a must. If you have a hive stand loop a piece of rope over the roof and through the stand to secure it in place. Any tall grass/vegetation should be cleared from around your hive to avoid a collection of water vapour near the hive. Good outer ventilation is important as well.

Now your bees are clean, fed, well ventilated and happy! You can now get to bottling all that honey you collected during the year!

photo copyright 2009 ©-The Hive Honey Shop

Time now to put Mouse Guards on your hives!

Well the weather is noticeably cooler now and that means your bees will begin to huddle together to keep warm. Their movements will be considerably slower to conserve their energy and food supply. This is when an inquisitive mouse looking for a nice warm place to spend the winter will crawl through the entrance of your beehive.

Not only will they find warmth but a very nice food source to last them a time- yes YOUR BEES! Mice love the taste of honeybees and honeycomb. They will slowly pick off one bee at a time working their way through your colony. During this cold period your bees will not be in their normal defence mode, instead clinging to one another to keep warm. Bees are cold blooded insects and need external heat or find it hard to move. This means a mouse can easily attack them without retaliation. So what can be done?

Apply a Metal Mouse Guard. This is a commercially produced metal strip with small 10mm bee size holes in it. If you have an entrance block in place to reduce the entrance size to keep wasps out, now you can remove this block. Fix the mouse guard in place with drawing pins across the entire hive entrance area. If you have a WBC remove the wooden slides and insert the mouse guard behind the porch entrance. Your bees will be able to enter and exit, but the holes are too small for a mouse to fit through. Even if you think there are no mice in your apiary area- they will find your hive.

Remember to check the entrance every week for the next few months to clear any dead bees away from the floor and entrance. At this time of year the natural bee mortality rate is high and this could pile up, blocking the exit for the remaining bees. We make up long bent sticks to scoop any fallen dead bees out of the entrance. It's quick and easy and does not alarm the bees if done gently. In the spring once the weather has warmed up and your bees are flying again, remove the mouse guard. Clean it with hot water and soap and store away until Autumn.

photo copyright 2009 ©-The Hive Honey Shop

Bee Feeder- The solution just pours out!

Hi,
I bought, last week a plastic bee feeder, from your shop.
I was told to put in the cooled sugar solution and then close the lid and place the container upside down near the area the bees were feeding.
The solution just pours out!

Have I misunderstood ?
Help!

Mike Nathan

At The Hive Honey Shop we get this question quite often. Here's the answer again.

After you make your sugar solution (1 kilo cane sugar to 1 liter water. Mix until crystal clear. If its cloudy it will clog the feeder mesh). Pour the solution into your feeder bucket. Now have another empty bucket ready. Put two pieces of wood slats on top of the empty bucket. Invert the feeder over the empty bucket and balance the feeder on top of the wood slats. The syrup in the feeder will drip for a few seconds until a vacuum occurs within the feeder, the syrup will stop dripping. The fine mesh of the feeder is tiny enough to contain the syrup, yet allow the bees to suck it through from the mesh. Don't invert it without a bucket as any spills near or around your hive will attract wasps and other bees to come and attack your hive. Have a look at our photo. Hope that helps!

The Hive Honey shop

photo copyright 2009 ©-The Hive Honey Shop

Masonry Bees- Advise at hand!

Hello,

It was very interesting listening to your slot on BBC London this week, and it has left me with a question I would like to ask you.

For the past couple of years in the springtime we have had some masonry Bees nesting in our wall above our patio door, at least I am told they are masonry Bees They get in and out via spacers left by the builders when the house was built. They are only there for a couple of weeks and then they block the holes and disappear. I imagine they will return next year.

As much as I respect the Bee I'm not sure I want them to nest again next year. Can you give me some advice as to what I should do to prevent them nesting next year, I would be very grateful.

Very Best Regards

Andrew Hamshare

Hi Andrew

Thanks for your question. You do have Masonry bees. They are only active in the spring. Your right, they have now laid their eggs in preparation for next year. So you missed the boat for doing anything this year, as its August. Next year when you notice the very first activity, the bees emerging, flying about, THAT'S the time to act!

Try the The Hive Honey Shops Eco-Friendly 'Rehousing Method'

1) Make your plywood barrier habitat

Take a large piece of plywood 15mm thick, large enough to cover the entire area of the wall they are coming out of. Take a size 7 wood drill bit and drill lots of holes through the plywood sheet. Screw that to another piece of plywood the same size. Loosely refill the drilled holes will either sawdust or soil. As you have sandwiched another piece of plywood to the back of the one with drilled holes, the bees can enter the drilled holes only but no further. They will be unable to re-enter the fabric of your building.

2) Fix your plywood barrier habitat

Now around 8am on a sunny day when the bees are flying, screw your plywood to your bee infested wall area, holes facing outwards. As the bees are out flying they will come back to your plywood barrier. They will enter your drilled holes and lay their eggs in the plywood, not the wall of your building.

3) Remove & relocate your plywood barrier habitat

Once the bee population dwindles, about 1-2 months later, remove the plywood and place it in a far corner of your property. You have now successfully caught all the eggs for next year in your plywood habitat. Next year your bees will emerge from the plywood not your property wall.

4) Seal the holes in your property wall

After you have removed the plywood habitat, this is the time to properly seal the holes in your property wall. Use concrete if the holes are in the pointing, fill as normal. Unless you fill them properly you will have the same problem year after year as the masonry bees will reuse the holes again and again.

The nice thing about using our plywood method is that you do not harm or upset the bees and you do not disturb their natural life cycle, just alter the location where they breed.